Owner Lina Mills speaks with customers outside of Creative Ideas Catering in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. The governor’s new proposed budget would cut more than half of the funding of California’s Small Business Technical Assistance Program, which benefits small businesses like Creative Ideas Catering.LAist is facing a budget shortfall, but our mission to provide fact-based journalism is stronger than ever. We cannot do this important work without your member support today.
Mills has relied on programs that help small business owners with financing, marketing, accounting and social media skills, which enabled her to participate in pop-ups for food takeout during the pandemic’s height. Acknowledging the free aid she received from a Small Business Development Center and the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, she said “I have no idea what I’d do without them.”
If the program’s funding is cut by more than half, it could “affect 75,000 small businesses per year that contribute to the state’s tax base,” said Carolina Martinez, chief executive of CAMEO Network, a small business advocacy group. He started off with one restaurant and now owns six in the Sacramento area, which during peak times employ about 150 workers, he said. Delgado said attending a Small Business Administration course for emerging leaders set him on a path to management and entrepreneurship classes, then culinary school.